SS15 - Colour Pop Highlights

Yesterday we were at Change Studios in London.

With the sun shining brightly through the beautiful old warehouse windows, 

we couldn't resist adding some bright pops of colour.

What's in a name? Emily & Clare?

We love our trips to London to visit Liberty's. 

It's always exciting flicking through their fabrics, as we look for new prints for our collections.

 It was love at first sight when we spotted this print. The detail in the print is beautiful. 

Then we had a look at the name - Emily & Clare

 It was named after Emily (Mary's daughter) and Clare, 

so we had to have it in our collection.

Behind the Scenes - Limited Edition Juliet Dress

Whilst looking through Liberty's print collection we spotted the beautiful 
Joy and Sorrow print and fell in love. 

We instantly knew how we wanted to wear it. A simple unstructured shift shape with a
three-quarter sleeve and side pockets, so we kept the design simple

Liberty's only had a single roll left, so we smiled very sweetly at the lovely ladies 
that make our dresses (bought a few boxes of biscuits to keep them happy) 
and asked them to make our first ever limited edition. 

There is no more fabric and we only have 42, so you will need to be quick.

Each dress has been numbered, so you really are buying a forever dress. 

In years to come, Juliet may well be Allium B's first collectors piece.

 We can't promise your investment will go up, 
but you will have a beautiful dress you can love forever.

I'd be quick - shop JULIET

AW13 Photo Shoot

The birds were just waking and the sun rising, as we headed up from Allium B HQ 

to London's East End for our AW 13 Photo Shoot. 

First stop Haggerston Espresso Room aka HER for a truly delicious coffee and some cake for later

We were shooting at the Russian Club again, so as Sarah and Chloe got the lights

 and camera set up,

we got everything ready.  First job is always to check the dresses look good against the backdrops. The grey and teal both looked great, but the lilac wasn't working so it was back to Travis Perkins for more paint and a boiler suit!!

This is our third campaign shot by Sarah at the Russian Club, so with make up done by the wonderful Salina (who will be guest editing our blog next week with how to get the

 Allium B look) and Hannah looking gorgeous, 

we quickly had our first pictures

So after 2 long days shooting and a very big thank you to Sarah, Chloe, Salina,

 Hannah, Emma and Susana, we had our AW 13 campaign

AW13 will be online from next week.

We hope you like the range as much as we do.

Please let us know what you think.

Clare & Mary x 

SS13 Photo Shoot

On a cold November's day, we headed up to London for our Spring Summer Shoot at

The Russian Club and after a long day's shooting with the help of

our wonderful photographer Sarah, beautiful hair & make up by the fabulous Kenny

and the truly stunning Malin, we came home with some amazing photos.

The day didn't start well, when we realised that one of the walls had been painted the wrong colour 

From a light Azure to a deep Teal - opps!

- so after a debate with the guys at Travis Perkins, "Couldn't be us Love", until they realised their machine was broken and then a brisk walk up the Kingsland Road in search of more paint, I donned my painting kit - towel pinned over very gorgeous new Amelie Dress and got to work painting.   

Whilst all this was going on Kenny was making the ever beautiful Malin, even more beautiful.

Then after a quick lighting check - Sarah started shooting

We finally stopped at 2 for a delicious pizza lunch from Due Sardi

A couple of hours later and spurred on by lots of chocolate, we had our images.

Next stop Sarah's studio for some late night editing

and finally a sneak peep of our SS13 images

Ava Dress

Phoebe Dress

We hope you love our new campaign.
For the full collection head on over here

Behind the scenes: The story behind Clara

We start this series with a sneak peek into the insight, notion and inspiration behind the current collection.

First stop is, Clara.

Clara is our autumn tea dress in raspberry georgette. The rows of embroidered lace on the bodice were inspired by perfectly preserved Victorian lace. Rummaging through the stalls one early Friday morning, deep in the heard of portobello market we found, at the bottom of an old hatbox, these perfectly preserved Victorian lace cuffs with exquisite hand embroidered lace.

We love taking something beautiful and old and giving it a modern twist, so Susanna our designer carefully drew out the artwork for the embroidered lace bodice and we designed the dress around it.

Dying up georgette in deepest Raspberry, adding a tie belt, semi-sheer tucked sleeves and a little keyhole detail at the back to create a romantic dress with a modern feel.

Behind the scenes: Photo shoot

Having shot our first 2 campaigns outside and been open to the elements

 -10c and snow in February and showers in April  

We decided to stay in the studio for our AW campaign (and as luck would have it, we were stuck inside when the sun shone outside).

The day starts early with makeup & lighting set up. 

It’s one of the great mysteries as an outsider that you start at 8.30am, but you don’t get a single picture until 11, but it’s this early prep that produces the amazing photos later.

We searched high and low for a location house and couldn’t found what we wanted, so with a little help from our neighbours who lent us some gorgeous props we recreated some beautiful rooms against the rough background of some back walls in the loading bay of Create – who said the world of fashion was glamorous?

The Stylist plans the looks for the shoot and always comes with bags of gorgeous accessories. 

Sarah Cresswell our wonderful photographer pulled together the campaign and with help from Claire and Kenny, ensured Malin was always looking gorgeous

Through out the day, we are constantly reviewing and checking images

It's amazing that some painted walls in an empty loading bay

 can be transformed into such beautiful images 

 and on to our website 

 A big thank you to everyone including Rosie who gave us a gorgeous supper and large glass of wine at the end of the day.